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No Man's Sky

So I wanted to open this thread, thanks to a reminder of Ghost, who quickly mentions it in another thread.

I have to say that in the beginning, when I heard about the game, I was blown away and quite looking forward to it. But now, I have to say, after all the hype, I have my doubts.

The main question of course is, does it really keep you playing for many many hours, or does it get boring after 10 hours in? At the moment I tend more to the latter.

Do the planets differ so much from each other. Infrastructure, vegetation, resources, fauna...? Is there enough to do? Any interaction with other players, or are there even NPCs?

F.ex. how are the animals/creatures generated? Is it like in Spore, or do you encounter the same ones over and over again, just in another color? I mean I don't want to collect green frogs, than red ones and then the same in blue. Might even be boring from beginning on.

Is there really enough happening in that universe? I like the idea of endless space, but I still want to have a goal to reach, perhaps without investing hundreds of hours.

I will wait for the first reviews, but I'm quite sure they will be very mixed, if not tending to be more negative than positive. Will see.

I've been interested since the game was first announced. But I've stayed away from the hype, haven't looked much at trailers and so on. I know the basics of it of course, but otherwise I don't want to know too much about it since I'll likely play it. I'll find out what the general opinion of it is before I buy it myself. My biggest concern is also how repetetive is it? I've heard that the ultimate goal is to reach the center of the universe, but it will take a long time to get there even if you head straight for it. If the random generation is diverse enough then I can deal with it, I've spent weeks exploring in Elite: Dangerous without getting bored for instance. But you need to come across something unique every now and then, a particularily strange terrain, a unique view or vista, something like that. It's enough for me, but others will demand much more than that to stay entertained. Gameplay wise you will probably see all it has to offer in a matter of hours, after that it's a question if the things you find are varied enough to sustain it. You know there aren't going be that many very different creatures, there'll be many similar ones with minute difference to make each of them a unique creature. The people who expect there to be thousands of vastly different variations are in for a disappointment. I expect the game to fare somewhat poorly in user reviews in the beginning for that reason alone, so I'll be taking those with a grain of salt at least.

No one knows yet (other than the guy who claimed he bought a ladled copy for 2k ams completed it in 100 hours).

They have shown official videos now of space combat, large structures.. possibly space stations, and more than just organic life on some planets. We will however just have to wait and see. I will be playing it regardless.

They did say in an interview that it is possible to bump into other players but it will be hard to. On a planet for example it will be the same physical size as a real planet. Imagine on Earth you are stood in America and another player is in India. They won't know they are both there and will likely never meet.

If that is the case I think the one area it will disappoint is the lack of multilayer. Although I Equally get bored and annoyed with pvp games so they are probably steering clear for that reason.

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If you haven't played a classic game in years, it's never too late to start!

I still kind of have my doubts about this title. I have been playing several free roaming/sand box games such as Subnautica, and after a while I just became bored with it despite how much it offers.
Even if No Man's Sky turns out well it may not be my game.

For the same reason I don't play Elite Dangerous either. Lots of freedom for players and you can decide your own type of career, but I just can not focus myself on it. (mind you, I am going through a depression right now, that also effects me)

Earth is like a 24 hour, Seven days a week Stupidity contest which has been running for centuries.
And every time they are ready to pronounce a winner, a new contender appears on the scene.

* * * *

He has seen half the universe who has not seen the house of pain (Ralph Waldo)

I understand what you mean. People moan about linear games where you are always taken down a single corridor through the game. But given complete freedom in an open world can quickly make a lot of players feel lost and unable to work out what to do, leading to roaming around aimlessly and eventually getting bored and leaving the game.

Most open ended games do have a lot of things to discover, specific locations and story lines to explore and once you have grasped how an open ended game's narrative works it can quickly become much more enjoyable.

In something like Elite I can just enjoy exploring new systems and discovering new planets and stars, plus docking with different stations. For me that never gets boring, but for some that would bore them senseless. You can of course take missions and jobs at stations or go mining. It's very much like the original Elite and Frontier and I never got bored of those. I often used to imagine more behind the scenes of the actual game being played.

If there is one thing I don't like about the new game as much as the old is I find navigation much more fiddly and complicated to achieve the same things I did before. But you soon get used to it.

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Last edited by Harrison; 8th August 2016 at 09:05.

If you haven't played a classic game in years, it's never too late to start!

You have pretty much nailed what I have difficulty with.
I don't like really linear shooters for example and prefer multiple paths and approaches, but give to much options and I have no idea where I should start.

Kind of the same with open strategy games like Civilization and Sim City. Where should I start.

With a lot of these open ended games you basically have to make up your own narrative and goals, and that can be somewhat challenging when you have always been used to the games giving objectives and goals to you.

I am really going to have to see more of No Man's Sky before I will consider buying.
As for Elite Dangerous, I will probably never purchase that one, I just can not get into such a game.

Earth is like a 24 hour, Seven days a week Stupidity contest which has been running for centuries.
And every time they are ready to pronounce a winner, a new contender appears on the scene.

* * * *

He has seen half the universe who has not seen the house of pain (Ralph Waldo)

Here's some feedback from a guy that apparently played it through in 30 hours, reaching the center:

This will be as spoiler-free as it can be, and anything I discuss here is so minimal of a spoiler that it should be disregarded.

So, I've reached the center. For now, I'll just keep it a secret. I realize it is "the secret" of the game and I'm sure other people will spill the beans for clickbait sooner than later, so fear not fellow spoiler hounds - someone out there will feed your appetite I'm sure.

I just want to dispel some misconceptions right now and clear the air on a few things before I (finally) sleep.

The Atlas Stone thing is not an "exploit." I was careful to word this so as to not spoil some stuff surrounding it, but please stop insinuating as if I found some game breaking cheat/exploit and abused it. This is NOTHING of the sort. The location of the Stones/Fuel is VERY specific, it's a VERY important location / theme in the game, none of this is by chance and they clearly meant to make it special. I said I PERSONALLY disagree with the design choice, but it's there for now and it is what it is.

The free Fuel doesn't bother me nearly as much as the units gained by the Stones. The pacing was going okay until I ran in to these and then it just skewed everything for me. Here, I'll give you hard numbers - I was selling stacks of rare resources for 20-30K. Uncommon ones maybe 5-10k. Atlas Stones sell for 275K...

Yes, there was life on every planet. Every single one. But, keep in mind, the life itself VARIED dramatically - when I found life on the "Fauna: None" planets, it was seriously stupid shit like prairie dogs. I wasn't encountering giant rhinos or anything. I THINK, although I could be wrong, but I THINK Sean's "90% of planets are bone dry" comment was in reference to planets LOADED with life. Or they just changed their mind last second - who knows.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, I have done A LOT of what the game has to offer. I actually intentionally took time out of my warp jumping over the course of going to the middle to explore planets to break up the monotony of it. This does not mean I have done all of the major events, however - I am still yet to swim to the bottom of a big ocean. I am still yet to destroy a space station. I definitely still have stuff to do.

Another gripe I have right now with the claims on the game before release is this whole "it gets weirder the closer to the middle you get." If you're like me, you expected some seriously obvious inclinations that this was happening as you progressed, and for me... I haven't seen much in the way of difference as I went. The ONLY ONLY ONLY big difference, and honestly the only reason I pushed it so hard, was the weapon crates you saw in the Trade video with the guns for trade improve in quality as you go further in. So, for me, my basic logic was... the sooner I get to the area at the middle, the sooner I have the best multi tool, so why wait?

EDIT: The process to upgrading ship module count is to just keep buying ships. You'll keep finding better ones the more you buy!

There are bugs. Quite a few in fact. In some moments I really start to feel as if this game would have benefited from a beta test. PRAY for a Day 1 patch, not only to nerf the sale cost of Atlas Stones but also to address some of this shit too:

Currently, Beam Upgrades for your multi tool seem broken and ass backwards. Upgrades that are supposed to slow down the heat up of your beam, actually speed it up. Upgrades that are supposed to speed up the mining speed of the beam, actually slow it down. Essentially, your STARTING beam is as powerful as it can be, and if you upgrade it with +1 +2 +3 beam upgrade modules it becomes UNUSABLE. This would, in theory, mean that the fully upgraded beam is actually the beam you're supposed to START with, which would mean my early exploration would have gone a LOT slower.

Sea creatures spawn in shallow water completely vertical stuck in the ground. This isn't like a one time bug thing either, 80% of the large sea creatures have spawned this way, which is a super bummer for me because sea creatures are my favorite and I can't even appropriately scan them or even naked eye view them when this happens.

I've had the game full on crash to PS4 menu something like 20 times now. Usually when I'm warp jumping. No joke. Save your game a lot kids, you'll be pissed if you don't.

This entire post isn't even actually a review or anything, this is just addressing a lot of major points people keep bringing up. Once I complete other things like engaging in big scale battles, I'll make a final review.

Oh, and I didn't even pop a trophy for hitting the center. C'mon man...

EDIT: Some people want some quick positives, so stealing some I wrote down below:

While I still haven't found a planet flush with Plants and Fauna as some of the trailer planets (I'll attest this to Sean's claim of those super full and awesome planets being a REALLY low chance to find) I will say that the terrain and overall vibe of the planets has been surprisingly refreshing. I never really have moments where I land on a planet and say, "Oh no, not this one again." They have a lot of variables in the procedural - even the most mundane things like coloring can mean a world of difference. One planet may seem VERY different from another simply because one is purple and another is yellow - you don't notice the similarities as much this way.

Everything is very smooth. The space combat, the entering / leaving your ship, the warp jumps, all of it just feels really sharp while you're playing. I really enjoy the space flight, it's quick enough that I don't sit around twiddling my thumbs but it's long enough at times where I legit feel like I'm traversing a realistic space-distance.

The noises and sound in this game are some of the best I've ever experienced. The animal noises are incredible. They set the mood in such fantastic ways - you'll hear them from quite a ways off and it really sets the tone for that planet. It's very immersive.'

EDIT: I've spent some time responding to comments but I really gotta hit the sack for a bit. Super tired. I'll respond to some more when I wake up.

I've decided I'll post a review when the review embargo is lifted and when other websites post them. I'd expect all the major websites will post reviews, so I'll post my own as kind of a "reddit review," but I'll respect the review embargo before I do and wait for that to lift. So when my review goes up it'll be parallel to all of the other reviews and hopefully you'll see I'm not crazy in some of the things I say, be it good or bad, if other publications agree with me to some degree on any of it.

(This is a safeguard so you don't hate me if I say anything too negatively, ofc )

ANOTHER EDIT: One thing I want to stress is that this post was my NOTES AT WHERE I'M AT RIGHT NOW with the game, and was never meant to be a definitive final say in any area. I'm still learning, I'm still figuring things out. These notions will evolve with time. This is just a process - I was just sharing where I am in my game state with what I've managed to figure out so far.

EDIT: There's another weird thing I've noticed, and Kengi01's version has the same thing.

Your Photon Cannon is supposed to be charged up. It's supposed to take Oxides. Right now, it doesn't. There's no bar to charge it, it doesn't use up a resource, it's infinitely usable.

This seems... weird. The Beam on your ship needs Isotopes to charge; why is the Cannon infinite use? There's even a tooltip while flying / fighting that tells you to use Oxides to charge the Cannon.

I checked his stream specifically to check for this because I knew I'd be able to identify it early on and sure enough - his Cannon has no charge bar and is infinite use as well. I am CONFIDENT he is playing the same version. And this is yet another indication that we may all be playing a pre-launch version, with a Day 1 patch imminent.

EDIT: I'm considering spoiling some aspects of the center, while leaving the mystery in tact. Basically, I want to explain what it is mechanically speaking, but I want to leave the spoiler of what lies for you in wait at the center in tact to keep the mystery. I think this would be a fair compromise, people would still have a mystery waiting for them unspoiled, and all the people wanting to better understand the fundamental framework of how the game works would have a better idea. What do you guys think?

- - - Updated - - -

I went to our supermarket right now, and they had the game there, so I couldn't resist and bought it. Gonna try it out later.

Yeah indeed, plus they always sell the games already before the official release Main Luxembourgian supermarket chain Cactus: http://www.cactus.lu/en

I played the game yesterday for about 3 hours. First impressions are quite good.

So far I only was on 2 planets, the first one being the one you're starting on, because you're stranded there and have to get your ship working again to leave. Planet is quite big, loads of stuff happening, but it is also because you don't know anything, have to learn how the game works, and well, it's the first planet. After you collect the needed resources, you're ready to leave the planet, and fly into space.

I spent quite a lot of time on the first planet, like I said, finding out about the controls, what the whole thing is about, and what exactly is your goal, how to achieve it. Which resources do you need, and where to get them.

There's a lot of chests scattered around, and also unknown places marked with a ?. Basically you scan the surface with your scanner, which tells you then what resources are around and near you. You then gather them with either your plasma gun, or just by extracting from plants and such.

To move around, you either walk, run or use your jetpack to reach higher ground. You can of course also use your ship, although on the first planet, first you need to fix it. Nicely done is if you mark/have a target, it shows you the real time you need to get there. When heading towards it, the time diminishes then accordingly on how you achieve this. If the timer shows 3 minutes, and you walk, you need 3 minutes real time to go there, if you run, the time goes faster. Running exhausts you, so you cannot run for longer time. Plus your energy decreases depending on the atmosphere of the planet. First planet has a quite normal climate, thus I could last a lot longer than I could on the second planet, which has lower minus temperatures.

You have an exosuit in which you store collected resources, but the space is limited, you have like 10 slots. This can be upgraded though. You ship has also a limited cargo capacity, so in the beginning you cannot carry around too much stuff, and have to focus on what is important. Although when your suit is full, you can transfer it at any time to your ship, if there's space. Your plasma gun will also use energy with the time, and you will eventually have to replenish it, otherwise no harvesting.

There's also these little flying robots, which scan you if you're harvesting too much I guess. None attacked me or did something in any way though, I was also behaving I have to mention.

I left the planet straight away after the ship was repaired. Another thing before I left was that there was an animal closing in on me, then I had the possibility to feed it. I immediately did, and it was happy, and followed me all the time along my way. Was nice.

Lifting off with your ship, and flying into space is nicely done, and very easy to do. The ship also controls very nicely, and for the first time you get a glimpse of the multiverse. You can also see then other ships cruising around, I guess friendly, none attacked me.

So I was flying to another planet, this one having a space station in orbit, small one. The planet was absolutely HUGE. I navigated towards the beacon and landed there. At those beacons, you can save your progress, and it shows you if you're the first one discovering it. You can then also rename it and upload it, you get even rewards for this, money.

This planet was quite dark and had not a lot of fauna, almost none, resources were quite scarce. But on this one, you can already find docks. Flying there is important, because in these little planet stations you will find life, plus trading shops and upgrades. I met one alien race so far, don't understand their language at all, but already found a document with one word of them translated into English, not as big help yet. At the trading post you can also sell your stuff, and buy what you need, in case you have enough units. You can also rename all of these docks if you want. If you communicate with the alien on board, you get information, or various goods. F.ex. the one on the space station, where I flew later, gave me antimatter, which I needed to build a warp shield, which I needed for my hyper-drive.

Here also land different aliens, and you can trade goods with them, or even buy their ship, if you have enough to pay them. This is nicely done, as you can straight away compare both ships, see what's installed, shields, weapons, hyper-drive... and also see how much cargo space it has. So far I met 3 guys, same race, but each one had a different ship. Unfortunately I had only 40.000 units, and the guy with the nice cargo ship wanted 6.3 million, quite out of my budget. Other guy had a fighter, only a bit more cargo, but great firepower, still was 600.000.

You find upgrades all the time around these docks, but to built them, you will of course need the right resources, which are not always easy to get. I'm a bit stuck on this planet now, as I want to fly around to explore, but struggling to get fuel for the ship. And I need 100 plutonium to build my hyper-drive, but have problems finding some.

Like I mentioned before, you have to get used to the game, to see how all the mechanics work, which is not all that easy in the beginning, because you all the time need something to do another thing, and it needs getting used to it.

The controls are very good and very easy to use. Music is very good, and the graphics fit the purpose. So far it's great to explore, but I could see the problem in it getting tedious. I guess the first 10-20 planets are quite interesting to explore, but can it deliver and keep it that way? I'm quite positive that there's still a lot of stuff to happen before it gets boring. Meeting other aliens, the only race I met is quite friendly. Buying and upgrading your suit, weapon and ship is quite interesting, and what about a nice space battle? Planets with ferocious animals? Why not, bring it on, I'm ready

Thanks for the first impressions. I've heard that as you progress you get the chance to build space structures like space stations. I don't know if this is true, but world be great and your early impression sounds like the game grows over time as you advance.

I will definitely be playing it on pc soon.

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If you haven't played a classic game in years, it's never too late to start!